A Friend in Need
by PunkyRabbit
Summary: Ariel and Hannah run into trouble on the way home from school. Set in Second Season.


**Title:** A Friend in Need

**Author**: PunkyRabbit

**Author's Notes:** Thanks to my Beta

**Feedback:** PLEASE! It's what keeps me writing!

**Warning:** It would spoil the story to put the warning here. It's listed at the end of the story for those who don't mind being spoiled.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything connected to Medium, nor much of anything else really, unless you want a spoiled collie, a rabbit, birds or a fish.

**A Friend in Need**

Ariel and her friend Hannah walked home from school, as they did every day. As always, they were talking about everything and nothing…boys, school, boys at school…etc.

"Hey, are we going in here again?" Ariel asked as they passed the convenience store.

"Sure," Hannah answered, "We always do."

They hardly ever bought anything…maybe a candy bar or a soda on occasion, but they loved to look at everything. The regular clerk had grown used to their visit every day, and didn't think much of it when he saw them browsing through books or trying on sunglasses. As they entered, Ariel saw a skinny guy wearing a plaid flannel shirt with cut off sleeves, and tight blue jeans, looking at the candy bars. To the girl, he looked really nervous.

"He's really creepy." Ariel told her friend.

"Who?"

"That brown-haired, scrawny guy looking at the candy bars."

"Oh, he is creepy."

The girls both giggled as they wandered over to the sunglasses near the back of the store. They had been trying on sunglasses for a few minutes when Ariel found a pair worth commenting on, "What do you think?" Ariel inquired as she slipped on a pair of red, white, and blue, star-shaped sunglasses.

Her friend removed the leopard print pair from her own face, looked at her friend and laughed, "Yeah, you look like a dork!"

"I do not!" Ariel retorted as she jokingly pushed Hannah out from in front of the tiny mirror on the sunglasses' cart, and as she looked into it, she continued, "Ok, maybe I do." Both girls continued laughing hysterically.

"Everybody on the ground! Now!" A man with a shotgun barged in through the front door with tremendous force, and another massively muscular thug stormed into the place, with his weapon drawn. The two girls immediately ducked to the ground behind the sunglasses' stand, and frantically looked for some way to sneak out.

The first man to enter, obviously the one in charge, thrust his gun in the cashier's face, "Empty all the cash in the bag, and no one gets hurt!" he shouted at the cashier as he shoved the ragged burlap sack into the face of the terrified clerk. As he did so, several massive muscles covered in tattoos were clearly visible peeking out from underneath the bald leader's black muscle shirt. The second man, wearing a leather vest, his red hair flopping as he paced back and forth in front of the counter, cocked his gun anytime anyone moved so much as a muscle. The "creepy guy" that was already there, pulled a gun out from under his shirt and moved to his position by the door to keep watch and make sure that no one tried to escape. Every time leather boy cocked his gun, the brown-haired puny guard flinched such that the tiny tattoo on the back on his underdeveloped arms showed. From where the girls were hiding, they could see how uneasy his seemed with the gun. He held it as though it were a snake about to strike. He gave uneasy glances toward the other two men, as though he was afraid to not follow their direction, but it didn't look to the girls like this man really wanted to be there.

"We gotta get outta here." Ariel whispered the obvious.

"Yeah, these gun toting baddies are creeping me out, too." Hannah agreed as she tried to think of a way out. They exchanged glances then both stared longingly at the back door, knowing it was their best bet for escape, even though they both knew that they probably wouldn't even make it that far, let alone actually get all the way outside. Even if they did there were no bushes or anything to hide behind; it was just flat open ground until they got to the old, abandoned warehouses, almost a block away from the rear of the convenience store. The only other option, however, was to stay here, so, figuring they'd take their chances, they waited until leather boy was facing the front door, then snuck around the sunglasses rack and out the back door. They saw the puny guy watching them, as they began to sneak toward the door. Ariel was hoping that maybe this particular guy wouldn't tell the others. Maybe he'd take this way to ease his obviously disturbed conscience, so that he could live with himself for being involved with this. Either way, though, they couldn't stop now; they had to try to escape. Ariel got the feeling that this was going to end badly. Her feelings about these kinds of things were usually right, and she wanted to get herself and her friend away from there, as soon as possible.

Despite the fact that Puny wasn't saying anything about the girls, Leather Boy immediately noticed the children's absence and inquired in a harsh tone," Where are the kids?"

"What kids?" Puny innocently inquired.

"You lost the witnesses, you incompetent idiot!?" Tattoo man shouted, thus terrifying the clerk even more.

"Calm down, man, they couldn't have gotten far." Leather Boy retorted.

"Find them Carl, and kill them, I can't have any witnesses!"

"But, they're just kids." Puny protested, knowing that Carl, his leather clad buddy, wouldn't hesitate to obey their tattooed leader, and Puny had enough of a heart that he couldn't just stand back and let two innocent kids die.

"Shut up, Matt!" Tattoo Leader shot back. When he saw that Carl hadn't gone anywhere, he roared, "Why are you still here!?"

"I'm not." Carl replied, storming out the back door.

The cashier lunged toward Leather Boy shoving him into an isle of candy bars. Tattoo Leader shouted furiously as he cracked his gun over back of the clerk's head, and with the man unconscious, Leather boy was able to get back up and continue his search for the girls.

The girls knew they couldn't outrun the muscular robbers, but they knew their chances of survival were worse off in the store. They both flinched when the back door slammed against the outside wall. Carl lifted his weapon, until the crosshairs lined up in the middle of Hannah's back, and, right as Ariel turned the corner, he fired. As the shot rang out, Hannah fell to the ground, her long brown hair blending into the dried dirt.

"HANNAH!" Ariel shrieked as she turned and saw her friend lying face-down in the dirt.

"RUN!" Hannah shouted, and Ariel wasted no time obeying her friends command, ducking quickly back around the corner of the warehouse. Hanna slowly lifted her head, stood up completely, and heeded her own command. She quickly caught up to Ariel, Leather Boy not far behind. They dashed in through the nearest door and dove behind a stack of boxes.

Once there, Ariel asked her friend quietly. "Are you Ok?"

"Yeah, I think so," came the response, delivered at the same volume.

"What happened?"

"There for a second I thought he'd shot you!"

"Me too."

The girls knew this shelter was only temporary. They could already hear Carl approaching the warehouse door from the outside. It would only be a matter of time before he got there. They couldn't stay there, but it was a good temporary hiding place, at least long enough to catch their breath.

Ariel looked down two long, separate paths lined with boxes, figured they should probably leave their current hiding place soon, turned to figure out which path Hannah thought they should take, only to find she wasn't there. She figured Hannah must have just picked a path and taken it.

The warehouse door was thrown open and Carl started shooting into the stack of boxes, behind which Ariel was hiding. As she started running down one of the rows lined with boxes, her leg started to throb. She couldn't spare any time to think about that right now, though. When she finally dove behind another stack of boxes, she pulled her pants leg up to see why her leg hurt so much. She was shocked to see a steady stream of blood pouring from a bullet hole in her calf. "Well", Ariel thought," that explains all the pain." She knew she had to get the blood stopped, so she tore off the end of her bloody, torn pants leg and tied it around her leg, just below the knee…just like she saw people do in the movies. "Mom's gonna kill me, "she thought" These jeans were brand new." As her leg slowly became numb, as she hoped it was supposed to do, she couldn't help wondering where Hannah was. She had been right there with her, and then she was gone. She couldn't call for her or Carl would find them both. She just had to trust that her friend knew what she was doing. "Hannah," Ariel thought,"Wherever you are, you'd better be safe."

Allison looked at the clock and thought that Ariel should already be home, but she thought she'd give her a few more minutes before she started to worry. She turned around and there was Hannah, standing in the middle of the Dubois kitchen. Allison was startled for a second, but then spoke gently," Hey, Hannah. Where's Ariel?"

"She's with me . . . No . . . I . . . I was with her . . . at the convenience store, and . . . and we were running and I fell, . . . and we're trapped in the warehouse . . . so, . . . how did I get here . . . I must have ran here . . . I don't remember running" She only gave Allison enough time to shrug before continuing," Wait a second . . . There was this guy . . . he was shooting at us."

"What guy?"

"One of the robbers . . . he was shooting at us when I fell, then we ran to the old warehouse."

Allison, shocked by the whole thing, asked," So where's Ariel, exactly?"

"She must still be in the warehouse." As Allison said something, she really wasn't paying much attention; she continued muttering to herself, "Why am I here? I should be there; with Ariel . . . did I tell her where I was going? . . . I think so . . . maybe not . . . I don't . . ."

"I'll call Detective Scanlon." Allison said as she walked over to the phone and as she realized that the poor girl had finally stopped yammering she continued, "Oh, and Hannah?" But, she turned back around, only to find that Hannah was no longer there.

"Ariel," Hannah whispered, when she found her friend again.

"Where'd you go?" Ariel whispered.

"Oh . . . I _didn't_ tell you where I was going. . . well that's weird . . .wait . . . how on earth did I get back here so quickly . . . I didn't mean to come back without help . . . wait . . . I'm not out of breath . . . how could I have possibly run there and back without being out of breath? . . . I . . . uh . . .

Ariel, starting to get a little concerned by how her friend was freaking out, repeated her question, "Where'd you go?"

"Oh. . . I went to your house to get help . . . but I don't know how I got there."

"Hannah, you were only gone a couple of minutes and there's no way out of here except the door on the other side of the bad guy."

"Oh . . . well, how'd I manage that?"

"I don't think you did."

"What do you mean?"

"Well. It's impossible, for starters."

"Well, then, how'd I . . . oh . . .no . . . I think . . . Oh . . . your leg . . . what happened?"

"I was hiding and the robber came in and just started shooting at that stack of boxes."

"It looks pretty nasty. Uh oh . . . can you walk?"

"I can try."

"Ok, then . . . this way" Hannah led her friend to a temporarily safe spot, when they heard police sirens close by.

Allison had just arrived at the scene with Scanlon, when there was Hannah again.

"Hannah, where's Ariel?"

"Wait . . . how'd I get here? I just thought it would be nice if I could tell you guys where we were without letting the bad guy know."

"Who are you talking to?" Scanlon asked Allison as he walked over to her.

"Oh, this is Ariel's friend, Hannah; she told me where Ariel is."

"Uh, Allison, there's no one there."

"Detective Scanlon, I've got a body over here." one of the other policemen announced over the radio.

"An adult or a kid?" Scanlon inquired.

"She's just a kid." the policeman replied.

"What!? Does that mean . . . no that can't be . . . I . . . uh . . ."

"I think you're…"

"When the bad guy . . . when he shot at me and . . . and I fell . . . I felt a pain in . . . in my back . . .Oh no!, I'm . . . I think I'm . . . Mrs. Dubois…am I dead?"

"That would explain how you got to my house without remembering how, and why Scanlon can't see you."

"But . . . I can't . . .I mean . . ."

"Hannah where's Ariel?" Allison asked the distraught child as tenderly as she could.

"Oh, I think I can, uh . . . I can show you."

A couple of minutes after Hannah left, Ariel heard footsteps approaching her position, and knowing that she couldn't outrun the robber with her leg in the shape that it was, she just crouched lower, hoping 'Mr. Leather' wouldn't find her, but knowing that it was inevitable. "What will the bullet feel like?" Ariel wondered frantically, "What will it feel like to be dead? Will he just shoot me here, or will he take me back to the store first? How's Mom gonna find out? Since she can see dead people, will I get to say 'goodbye'? What about Hannah? How will she find out? Is she OK?"

While her mind wandered helplessly, the footsteps got closer, and she crouched even lower.

"Ariel"

"Mom!" She whispered in response to the familiar voice. She flung herself into her mother's arms, never so glad to see her in all her life. Allison scooped her daughter up into her arms, grateful for the miracle that saved her child's life.

As her mom carried her out of the warehouse, she asked, "How did you find me?"

"Hannah."

"What?"

The policemen who had gone into the warehouse with Allison finally found Carl, and arrested him, while other cops did the same with the two back at the convenience store. Just one other customer had been killed. The rest were scared and shaken up; some of them were crying, but most of them weren't injured, physically. The clerk had a nasty gash on his head, but other than that he was fine.

Ariel waited in the back of detective Scanlon's car, while Hannah explained to her what had happened

"So you died when the robber first started shooting at us?"

"Well, yeah, but I didn't realize it until I suddenly wound up in your mom's kitchen, somehow, then poofed back in the warehouse with you, then poofed out here to tell them where we were. Even then, I wasn't totally convinced until the policeman found my body."

"So, when you left the second time, you were helping my mom find me."

"Yep."

"Are you OK? . . . I mean, aside from being, you know, dead? . . . I mean, when Mom came in, I thought it was the bad guy, and I thought I was gonna die, and I was scared, and here all that time you _were_ dead." She looked away from her friend for a second to see several policemen escorting the three thugs to separate police cars. When she looked back at her friend and she wasn't there. Up to that point, she had been fighting back tears, trying to be strong, but she couldn't fight it any more. So, as the police cars took the robbers away, Ariel just sat in the back of Scanlon's car and let several salty tears fall in her lap before her mom and Scanlon got in the car, and she wiped her eyes as the Detective drove them home.

A few days later, Ariel hobbled into the kitchen on her crutches, and when she turned around, there was her friend. "Hannah." she said, happy to see her again.

"You didn't expect me to leave without telling you goodbye, did you?"

"Well, I was hoping you wouldn't, but was kinda afraid you had."

"You're my best friend…I don't want to leave you."

"Same here. Hannah, I'm so sorry….if we just hadn't gone in the store that day…if we didn't try to run…if…"

Hannah reassuringly replied, "If things didn't happen just exactly as they did, then you would have died that day too…and probably all the other people in the store. There would have been no one to stop them. Help wouldn't have come in time." Ariel nodded in agreement, knowing that there was truth in what her friend had said, but it still didn't help the fact that her best friend was dead. Hannah comforted her and said, "If I had to die right now, I'm glad it was while doing something so important…saving my best friend's life." That statement caused a couple of tears to escape from Ariel's eyes. Hannah moved closer to her friend, and gave her a hug, trying to ease her friend's mind. She wanted to stay with her friend for a while longer, but she knew she had to go, "You get better soon, ok?"

"Ok . . . I'm gonna miss you, Hannah."

"I'm gonna miss you too."

"Will I ever see you again?"

"Maybe, somewhere down the road."

At that point, several more tears escaped Ariel's eyes, "Who knew goodbyes could be so hard?"

Hannah nodded while also trying to hold back tears," You take care."

Ariel nodded, not trusting her voice, and watched her friend fade away. As the fact that her friend was really gone started to sink in, she couldn't hold it in any longer, and she didn't even want to try anymore. She just stood in the middle of the kitchen, broke down and cried.

**Warning:** Death of a minor cannon character.


End file.
